Movies in the Thriller/Drama genre

Note to readers: This review contains spoilers. I have taken care not to reveal all of the movie's secrets, but anyone who has not seen He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not and wishes to be surprised by every aspect of the picture would do better to read t...

What happens when the so-called American Dream - a life of financial independence and home ownership - turns into the American Nightmare? For some, a house is just a place to stop and rest at night. For others, it's an investment - a means to bui...

It has been four years since the events depicted in Michael Mann's The Insider occurred. Actually, to be precise, it has been four years since some of them occurred. In the interests of drama, a certain amount of "fictionalization" has taken plac...

Since one of the duties of a film critic is to provide readers with enough ammunition for them to make an informed decision about whether a movie is likely to match their tastes, I must begin with a stern warning. Irreversible is the kind of film ...

Lady Vengeance is the conclusion of South Korean director Park Chan-wook's "Revenge Trilogy." (The other two episodes: 2002's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and 2003's Oldboy.) Over the span of three films, Chan-wook has examined many aspects of the co...

The Last Vermeer is something of an old-fashioned courtroom melodrama, complete with impassioned speeches, a sneering prosecutor, an antagonistic judge, and a last-minute gotcha! For those who enjoy this kind of “it only happens in the movie...

The niche occupied by Lawless is a precarious one. Too erudite for the average action/thriller-oriented moviegoer and too pulpy for the art house crowd, this intense, brutal drama may struggle to find an audience. A fictionalized account of the lif...

Almodovar. To those familiar with his body of work, that name is more than just a way to identify one of today's premiere directors -- it offers valuable insight into the scope and intent of a movie. Since his debut in 1980 with Pepi, Luci, Bom, ...

In the mountains of Afghanistan, one man, injured and bleeding, struggles against impossible odds to stay alive. It's at this point that the focus of Peter Berg's Lone Survivor shifts from that of a war movie to that of a tale of survival. In retro...

Ang Lee's follow-up to Brokeback Mountain is Lust, Caution. The film's receipt of an NC-17 by the MPAA was dutifully noted by the mainstream media, as was the distributor's (Focus Features) decision not to appeal the rating. NC-17 movies aren’t r...